Welcome to the Four Winds Historical Farm, where traditions of the past are preserved for visitors like you. Today, our master thatchers will begin giving this barn behind me a sturdy thatched roof, able to withstand heavy winds and last up to a hundred years. How do they do it? Well, in a nutshell, thatching involves covering the beams or rafters, the wooden skeleton of a roof with reeds or straw. Our thatchers here have harvested their own natural materials for the job, the bundles of water reeds you see lying over there beside the barn. Thatching is certainly uncommon in the Untied States today. I guess that’s why so many of you have come to see this demonstration. But it wasn’t always that way. In the seventeenth century, the colonists here thatched their roofs with reeds and straw, just as they had done in England. After a while, though, they began to replace the thatch with wooden shingles because wood was so plentiful. And eventually, other roofing materials like stone, slate, and clay tiles came into use. It’s a real shame that most people today don’t realize how strong and long lasting a thatched roof is. In Ireland, where thatching is still practiced, the roofs can survive winds of up to one hundred ten miles per hour. That’s because straw and reeds are so flexible. They bend but don’t break in the wind like other materials can. Another advantage is that the roofs keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. And then, of course, there’s the roofs’ longevity—the average is sixty years, but they can last up to a hundred. With all these reasons to start thatching roofs again, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see this disappearing craft return to popularity?

【生词摘录】

1. thatcher: n. [C]someone skilled in making a roof from plant stalks or foliage 盖屋顶者
2. barn: n. [C]a large farm building for storing crops, or for keeping animals in 谷仓,粮秣房,仓库,牲口棚;informal a large, plain building 【非正式】空荡 荡的大房子
3. withstand:v.tobestrongenoughtoremainunharmedbysomethingsuch as great heat or cold, great pressure etc 耐得住,承受住(酷热、严寒、高压等)
4. in a nutshell: spoken used when you are stating the main facts about something in a short, clear way 【口】一言以蔽之,简括地说,用一句话概括
5. beam: n. [C]a long heavy piece of wood or metal used in building houses,bridges etc 梁,横梁
6. rafter:n.[Cusuallyplural]oneofthelargeslopingpiecesofwoodthatformthe structure of a roof 椽
7. skeleton: n. [C]the most important parts of something, to which moredetail can be added later 骨架,框架;梗概,纲要
8. reed: n. [C]a type of tall plant like grass that grows in wet places 芦苇
9. straw: n. [U]the dried stems of wheat or similar plants that are used foranimals to sleep on, and for making things such as baskets, mats etc 秸秆 (如麦秆等)
10. colonist: n. [C]someone who settles in a new colony 开拓殖民地的居民,拓殖者
11. shingle: n. [C]one of many small thin pieces of building materials, especially wood, used to cover a roof or wall(覆盖屋顶或墙用的)木瓦;屋面板;墙面板
12. slate: n. [U]a dark grey rock that can easily be split into flat thin pieces 板岩,板石
13. clay: n. [U]heavy sticky soil that can be used for making pots, bricks etc黏土
14. tile: n. [C]a flat square piece of baked clay or other material, used for covering roofs, floors etc(屋顶、地板等上用的)瓷砖,地砖
15. longevity: n. [U]formal long life 【正式】 长寿;technical the length of a person or animal’s life【术语】(人或动物的)寿命